Star Trek: Emanations

Episode: "Emanations"

Series: Star Trek: Voyager

Season 1, Episode 9

Original Air Date: March 13, 1995

via Memory Alpha

Our heroes discover a burial ground on an asteroid.  When the away team transports back to the ship, Ensign Kim isn't among them and one of the corpses is in his place.  We soon learn that he is on another planet, perhaps (as the natives believe) in a different dimension.  Meanwhile, back on Voyager, the Doctor revives the corpse and the afterlife is not what she expected it to be.  In essence, she and Ensign Kim have switched places.

"Emanations" tackles the greatest mystery of all: what happens to us when we die?  The Vhnori, the species Kim encounters, believe they know.  They put those near death in a device called a cenotaph which euthanizes the occupant, then transports them to the "next emanation."  They believe the deceased encounter their own passed loved ones and carry on in a higher state of existence.  But actually, their corpses end up on asteroids in a planetary ring.  

The episode covers a lot of important issues: euthanasia, assisted suicide and the afterlife.  Harry especially stumbles over Prime Directive gaffs at every turn in his effort to find his way home but the exploration itself is certainly compelling for the viewer.

The two best parts of the episode come at the beginning and the end.  Chakotay demonstrates impressive anthropological knowledge about death rituals as the away team explores the Vhnori burial ground, stressing how the care given to disposing of the dead suggests the belief in an afterlife.  Torres counters that the Klingons believe in an afterlife but are expedient in dealing with corpses.  Chakotay replies, "Good point.  However, some archaeological digs on the Klingon homeworld..."  He never finishes the sentence because they're interrupted.  Oh, how I wanted him to finish that sentence...

Even better are Janeway's words to Harry after he returns, telling why she wants him to take some time before he resumes his duties:

I just want to give you a chance to reflect on what's happened. This may not make much sense to you now, a young man at the beginning of his career. But one of the things you'll learn as you move up the ranks and get a little older is that… you wish you had more time in your youth to really, absorb all the things that happened to you. It goes by so fast. It's so easy to become jaded, to treat the extraordinary like just another day at the office. But sometimes there are experiences which transcend all that. You've just had one, Mr. Kim, and I want you to live with it for a little while. Write about it, if you feel like it. Paint. Express yourself in some fashion. The bridge will still be there in two days.

Those are words to live by, folks.

Acting Notes

via Nukapedia Fallout Wiki

Tim Russ (Tuvok) was born in Washington, D.C., June 22, 1956.  An Air Force brat, he spent part of his childhood in Turkey.  He attended St. Edwards University in Texas, then Illinois State for grad school.

Before Voyager, Russ had a regular cast role in The Highwayman and guest appearances in The Twilight Zone, The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine.  Early films included Crossroads, Bird and Star Trek Generations.  He had only one line in Mel Brooks's Spaceballs but it is far and away the best line in the movie.

Since Voyager, Russ has had a regular role on Samantha Who?, a recurring role in iCarly and guest appearances on Hannah Montana and Star Trek: Picard.  In 2014, he won an Emmy for public service ads he did for the FBI's Los Angeles Field Office.